Generally, each Network Element (abbreviated as NE) apparatus is managed hierarchically in the mobile communication network. More specifically, the mobile communication network includes management systems of different levels such as Network Management System (abbreviated as NMS) and Element Management System (abbreviated as EMS), wherein the EMS mainly implements the function of the Element Management Layer (abbreviated as EML) and manages one or more NEs of different network types and from the same apparatus supplier. The NMS mainly implements the function of the Network Management Layer (abbreviated as NML) and is responsible for managing all NEs in the managed network. During practical applications, the NMS communicates with the EMS via a northbound interface (abbreviated as Itf-N) between the NMS and the EMS to manage apparatuses from different manufacturers and their related functions.
In the mobile communication network, the most intuitive service object supplier for users is the User Equipment (abbreviated as UE) which interacts with an NE directly and provides various services including calls and data processing etc. for the users. Generally, each NE manages a plurality of cells and each cell provides services for the UE. The coverage area of each cell is limited and the work of the UE is closely dependent on the cell where the UE is located. Normally, the UE needs to select a switching time and a switching target cell according to the configuration of the adjacent cell of the current serving cell during the moving process, wherein the switching target cell and the current serving cell may be managed by the same NE or different NEs, or may even be managed by different mobile communication systems. If the configuration of the adjacent cell of each cell in the mobile communication system is inappropriate, missing or even wrong, the quality of service of the UE may be reduced or even the service may be interrupted. Therefore, the configuration and optimization of the adjacent cell are very important for the maintenance of the network.
Currently, in the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (abbreviated as UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (abbreviated as UTRAN), when the network is constructed initially, the cell and its adjacent cell list are configured on the EMS in manual configuration manner according to planning situation, and the configuration of the cell and the adjacent cell list is sent downwardly to the NE. During the operation process of the network, network operation data is acquired and analyzed regularly. The adjacent cell configuration of the cell is adjusted manually at the EMS layer. The NE is notified to update the adjacent cell configuration of the cells managed by the NE. In addition, during the maintenance process, managers judge whether the configuration of the adjacent cell is correct according to switching-related indexes combined with data configuration condition.
According to the solution mentioned above for configuring the adjacent cell list, the NE does not have the ability of managing the adjacent relation of its cells and is unable to update or generate a currently-appropriate adjacent cell list in real time according to the configuration information of the current cell, thus failing to ensure the accuracy of the adjacent cell list. In addition, both the adjacent relation management among the NEs and the adjacent relation management among the EMSs need to be realized by the negotiation among the NEs or the EMSs, which will greatly increase the number of the links and interaction messages, thus increase the communication load of the mobile communication system. In addition, the configuration method above only can perform manual analysis and comparison to obtain an optimization adjustment result after acquiring the performance measurement data and configuration data of the whole network, which consumes a long time and fails to update and adjust the adjacent relation in time according to the change of the cell configuration information.